The Minds of a Heart Lost
by Vertycoxe
Summary: When a server containing petabytes of data is discovered in the old Argus Headquarters, Kirito is called to investigate. In hopes that the Cardinal system might be able to decipher the seemingly corrupted data, the servers are hooked up to ALO. However what, they find in the files, is certainly not corrupt and definitely not unintentional. (Only minor OC for expositional purposes)
1. Prologue

_A/N: Hello, ladies and gentlemen!_

 _This is my first fanfic that me and a couple of my friends are co-authoring. I came up with the idea for this while re-watching Sword Art Online, and it was S1E11 *hint?*_

 _This is set after Mother's Rosario but before Alicization. It is set up in a way that does not interfere with the cannon and is practically a side story._

 _Kudos, and enjoy._

 _Disclamer: Vertycoxe does not own Sword Art Online. This is a fan parody._

* * *

Prologue

Kirito was having a dream. A nightmare, rather.

He saw people getting killed by monsters, dissipating into hundreds of polygons, and calling his name. As the fragments hit the ground, they rang like thousands of tiny little bells and looked like leaves that got scattered by the autumn wind.

Kirito woke up with a start and flung his covers off, instinctively reaching for the Elucidator perched on his back. It wasn't there. He was in his room, and the sun was already shedding some of its light, still below the horizon. Kirito shuddered, and slowly looked around his barely lit room. His eyes travelled from the clock on the wall next to the door (reading 05:34), to the bookcase, his eyes falling on the grey helmet. The NerveGear, he thought, why does it still give me nightmares?

As he slowly woke up, he began to notice that the ringing from his dream could still be heard. He looked around, remembering the players dying, but quickly realized it was his phone. He reached for it, wondering who it could be so early, Asuna? Is something wrong!? As he glanced down, he realized it was not Asuna, but the person that was calling, especially at this hour, made him worry even more.

"H-hello?" Kirito squeezed out, surprised at how raspy and high pitched his own voice sounded.

"Hello Kirigaya-kun." said the voice on the other end, sounding anxious but assertive. "Sorry to wake you up so early, but we have a rather urgent development in the Argus case."

Kirito knew that voice well. It was Kikuoka Seijirou, the investigator that asked him to go into Gun Gale Online and find Death Gun. If Kikuoka had called him, that means something major had happened.

"Would you be able to come meet me at the Salon de café? It opens at 7. This is urgent."

* * *

Two Days Earlier:

In one of the busier streets in the downtown area, there is a gray skyscraper standing tall but deserted. It used to belong to Argus, the company who made SAO, Kurosawa Kogoro thought as he made his way past the crews lifting heavy furniture and waited for the elevator. Kogoro worked for a moving and storage company as an electrician, and they have been hired by the new tenants to clear the building. It has been more than a year since the SAO and ALO incidents, and the investigation was over, the case was closed. Argus filed for bankruptcy and sold the building to another company.

Kogoro sighed.

This place triggered unpleasant memories. His brother was trapped in the world of swords along with 10,000 people, but died only 2 days before the game was cleared. He chuckled. Kogoro knew that he couldn't really blame the company for what had happened, but it still felt good to tear down what was left of it with his own hands.

He stepped into the large utility lift and pressed the button that was the farthest down. Floor B5.

The elevator screeched and slowly made its way down.

Kogoro was in charge of dismantling the old SAO servers. They had already been swept clean by the investigators, of course, but the now lifeless towers had never actually been moved because they were bolted to the ground. There wasn't a reason to do so until now. Nevertheless, the servers were extremely high grade and very expensive, so naturally they were to be dismantled and taken apart.

He stepped out of the elevator and greeted the crew already assembled there. The unscrewing, disassembling, and all the commotion were almost second nature to him. So, his mind pondered about the world that was gone. About how so many people perished, and for what?

"That is the last of them," he told his team.

They nodded. The final server was wheeled onto the elevator and the doors closed.

Kogoro stayed back to pick up the tools. As he was picking up the wrenches he noticed something strange out of the corner of his eye. Where the last server had been, there was something shiny embedded in the floor.

Intrigued, Kogoro walked over and bent down. It was a small, rectangular plate, about 3 inches wide and 5 inches long, and was covered in dust except for a small Ethernet port located on the bottom left hand corner of the steel cover, which appeared to be part of the floor. He wiped it off with a rag.

What could this be? This is a weird place to put the internet cable, if that is what this is, he thought.

Something wasn't right. There were internet cables strung from the floors above to the servers already, and it seemed odd that a second port would be implemented, especially if it was embedded into the concrete floor.

Kogoro pulled out his laptop and plugged it in. He was getting uneasy, but was still very curious about what this actually was. As the laptop booted up, he opened up his file explorer (what a silly name, he thought) and looked for an Ethernet connection.

After about 5 minutes and coming up dry, the disappointed Kogoro was about to close and unplug the laptop when something caught his eye.

It was an external drive? And it was huge. As the laptop kept reaching and scanning more and more of this new entity, Kogoro got more and more alarmed. By the time Kogoro reached for his phone, the size of it was more than a petabyte, and was still increasing.

* * *

Thank you for reading!

What do you think is in the mysterious hidden storage?  
Why did Kikuoka call Kirito in?

Leave your comments down below!  
I will try to upload often.

{Both of us have finals in a week, however, Chapter 1 will definitely be uploaded before then. (maybe even Ch. 2)  
The rest after the 28th, and boy do we have a plotline for you guys ;)} - that was me, 2 months ago thinking I wouldn't procrastinate this summer :/. -7/19/15

Almost done with new chapter, sorry for the wait guys.

-Vertycoxe 5/17/15


	2. The Crimson Cafe

_A/N: What happens to authors who abandon their stories? Attempted murder. Apparently._

 _I would like to apologize for not uploading earlier. I was rather too optimistic when I thought that I could finish this chapter in a week. However, I didn't expect it to take all summer. And it didn't, in all respect, I was just getting caught up in things left and right and kept putting it off. Now that school started, I finally decided it was time to finish the second chapter. Besides that, I am usually self conscious about my writing, hit writers block, and find myself having to re-write entire paragraphs._

 _In other notes, thank you guys so much! This story, my first, already has 350 views! Even though a good hundred happened in the first day, when I look at the story stats graph from time to time, I notice that people come to check back every so often. That is just an amazing feeling. Thank you, you guys inspire me._

 _Everyone who followed, and the 4 of you who reviewed so far, thank you as well. The positive and constructive criticism is awesome! If only there were more of you. "I hope you continue this story soon" After much delay, I shall oblige:_

 _"Just because you, Vertycoxe, don't have a disclaimer in every single chapter, saying how you don't own SAO and this is a fan parody, doesn't mean you're going to die"_

* * *

The Crimson Cafe

Tokyo is a pretty big place. The grand city spans more than 2000 km2 in area and is home to more than 13 million residents. The scenic backdrop of Mt. Fujiyama overshadows the giant skyscrapers, which are draped in neon by night towering like monoliths, monuments to human engineering and technology. In November of 2022, the world was taken aback, as almost 10,000 people became prisoners of a virtual world called Sword Art Online, by a man named Akihiko Kayaba, the genius behind the full dive technology. The villain disappeared with his world, leaving behind an image of a mad man. Kirito saw a slightly different side to him, however.

* * *

The blue motorcycle roared down the street, weaving in and out of the morning traffic. Clouds were rolling in, shading the city from the sun, however the face of the biker was still masked by the dark faceplate of his helmet.

This weather only complimented Kirito's mood. He frowned. Kikuoka Seijiro, the head of the government VR division called him in for a meeting.

Something was up.

Last time this happened, Kikuoka-san asked him to investigate a murder, Death Gun in the game Gun Gale Online. If he was asking for Kirito's audience, something major had happened. That made Kirito worry.

A lot was on his mind as well. Ever since Yuuki died, Kirito had become slightly more sentimental and frequently plunged into deep thought as he recalled all the ways in which the virtual world affected himself and the people around him. To some it had brought sorrow, others happiness. For Kirito, well, he didn't regret being stuck in Sword Art Online. He learned lots about himself, faced insurmountable odds, and still came up victorious. He met a lot of great people, watched great people pass to the world above, and he also met Asuna. He wouldn't trade it for the world.

The virtual world brought sorrow to the families whose kin perished in it, but it also gave hope to others, like Yuuki. Kirito thought that the virtual world itself was like a stage. An empty stage couldn't hurt anyone. Whoever the scriptwriter was…, they were the one who got to steer it in any direction. That's how the world could cause sorrow or happiness.

What bothered him the most, however, was the man behind the whole enigma. Kayaba was a genius, a man Kirito looked up to before the incident. He thought that he hated him during the game, as others did, but he still harbored a degree of curiosity about the man's intentions. As Aincrad crumbled and Kirito faced Kayaba one on one, he asked the man-why? Why was any of this created, what purpose did the suffering serve? Kayaba told him he had forgotten, but Kirito was skeptical.

As he learned during ALO, Kayaba was still out there, somehow succeeding in a 1/1000 chance to upload his brain, his consciousness. He was now roaming the worlds created with his seed, which he entrusted to Kirito along with some words of wisdom and encouragement about the virtual world.

Kirito pulled up to the Salon de cafe.

The elevator dinged. He walked into the lobby and saw a familiar scene. The cafe had a profound theme in red. Crimson velvet tablecloth, mahogany windows, dark wood highlights on furniture, burgundy and orange wallpaper.

From across the cafe, the head of the Government's VR department, was waving and calling to Kirito loudly.

"Kirito-kun!" Kikuoka called, with a large smile on his face. "Over here, Kirito-kun!"

Kikuoka Seijirou was an interesting man, Kirito thought, as he shrugged and made his way to the table. Kikuoka didn't care much of other people's opinions, or was trying to be Kirito's friend too hard, he almost seemed too childish to be the most important government official in charge of Virtual Reality.

It was early, too early in the morning, the cafe mostly catered to, shall we say, well off individuals, who apparently didn't find it in themselves to get up at 6:30 in the morning.

Aside from a young couple in a far corner, who were too caught up in conversation to notice Kikuoka's cheerful disposition, the cafe was empty.

"Ohayō, Kirito-kun" said the man as Kirito was sitting down. "Sorry for waking you up so early."

Kirito's looked at the department head with slight annoyance. "Well it better be important," Kirito sighed, a little grumpy. "You don't have to drag me all the way out here every time you have to speak with me."

Kikuoka smiled. "Order anything you like, it's on me."

Kirito glanced at the menu, and ordered a coffee. He didn't drink coffee often, however the cafe baristas knew how to make a delicious brew, and he was still a little drowsy. Riding his bike was his caffeine, he thought.

"Chotto, Kirito-kun," Kikuoka said with a smile, "look alive! You know how they say, the early bird catches the worm or however the American saying goes."

Kirito raised an eyebrow.

"How is Sinon-san doing?" Kikuoka inquired, "Asuna?"

Kirito sighed. "Look, Kikuoka-san," he said matter-of-factly, "I appreciate your asking, but I really want to know what it is you have to say," Kirito blurted, in a slightly raised voice, "what could it be that would require you to wake me up at 5:30 over the weekend, and ask so urgently to meet." Kirito wasn't mad, just a little annoyed at how the man could sound so urgent over the phone and then greet him so light-heartedly.

Kikuoka's smile faded. "Always straight to the point, huh? Kirito-kun."

"Is this about Gun Gale Online?" Kirito guessed, "Did you find Johnny Black yet?"

Kikuoka shrugged. "Unfortunately, that man is very skilled at avoiding police. He's probably hiding out somewhere on one of the islands or made a break for Russia."

Kirito chuckled. "I can see you guys are professionals."

A waiter arrived with the coffee. Kirito took a sip.

Kikuoka tilted his head, the light from the window reflected on his glasses, so that Kirito could not see his eyes. "No, this is not about anything that happened in Gun Gale." Kikuoka handed Kirito a tablet. "Take a look at this."

Kirito glanced down at the tablet and saw what looked like a case file report.

Kikuoka cleared his throat. "You remember Argus, right?"

Kirito nodded. "Yeah, they are the company that made SAO. The one Kayaba worked for." Kirito thought for a moment. "They closed it down, right?"

Kikuoka smiled "Precisely."

Kirito raised an eyebrow. "Over the phone you said you had a new development. I thought you guys were done with that case."

The government official fidgeted about in his chair. "Well yes, we were finished with it. But-"

"So, what happened?" Kirito demanded. "Why are you bringing this up?"

Kikuoka pointed at the tablet. "Look"

Kirito saw a picture of a skyscraper, captioned Ex-Argus HQ "Their headquarters?"

Kikuoka confirmed with a nod. "Since the company closed down and the building was no longer needed for the investigation, well since the case was closed. The building was sold off to another company."

Kirito looked at the investigator puzzled. "Yeah, and so?"

"You remember how the servers that were hosting SAO were in their basement, right?" Kikuoka continued.

Kirito thought for a moment. He recalled how Kayaba told him and Asuna that the servers were on the 5th level underground, and how the Cardinal System's last task was to wipe them.

"Yeah," he answered, "You said you got metadata from them before the system wiped itself. You know, player levels and locations?"

"More or less," Kikuoka replied, "however, that's not completely true. Look at those pictures."

Kirito glanced down at the tablet. There were pictures of the SAO servers, how they stood. He scrolled down. A picture with the servers gone, dark spots on the ground.

"Next one" the official suggested.

He scrolled again. There was a close up of a spot where one of the servers stood. A little shiny plate was in the center.

Kirito looked puzzled "An internet port?"

"One of the technicians that was removing the servers wondered that as well," Kikuoka replied, "and plugged in his laptop. However, it was a network drive."

Kirito cackled. "So what? Probably backup storage for the servers. How does it help you if the Cardinal wiped everything, anyway?"

"That's just it," Kikuoka stared him in the eyes, "it wasn't wiped."

Kirito choked on his coffee. "What?"

A cloud blotted out the sun. The cafe seemed to get darker, colder.

"This storage was connected to the mainframe servers. The files in it appeared to be corrupt however."

Kirito shrugged. "So? Probably backup storage or something."

"Here's the catch though. It is enormous. Close to an exabyte of data."

Kirito's eyes opened wide. "As in, 1,024 petabytes, which are 1,024 terabytes, each?"

Kikuoka nodded his head. "Precisely"

"Woah. That is a lot." Kirito exclaimed. "In order to have that much storage, you need rows upon rows of servers. And you said it's all corrupted?"

The investigator squinted his eyes.

"Well that's what we thought. Hear me out, it gets complicated. Shortly after this was discovered word got to our department. I went down there personally to see to things. At first glance, it all looked like just trash files, corrupt. However, after more in depth examination, it was discovered that it simply used an old, unpopular file sorting system.

After we realized that, it became obvious that the files were much too structured to be corrupt. They also had non-standard file extensions, and they were encoded. The drive contained an executable, however it wouldn't run because it was compiled for an unknown architecture."

Kirito narrowed his eyes. "Wow! Strange. But what does that have to do with me? I'm sure you have people who are much more expertise in this field. I highly doubt these files are of much importance, and frankly, I don't see how I can assist you. Unless you want me to slice them up with a virtual sword..."

Kikuoka raised his hand and thrusted his arm across the table abruptly. "Hold that thought! That's exactly why I asked you to come here Kirito-kun!"

The swordsman looked puzzled. "You want me to slash at virtual files with a virtual sword without a significant interface to put them into a game? That sounds helpful to your cause." Kirito grinned with sarcasm.

"Not quite" Kikuoka smiled "But I like your approach. You are right about one thing though. We need you to go into Alfheim Online and interact with the chamber that the script produced."

Kirito was perplexed. "Wait. What chamber? The script?" Kirito sprung up and slammed his hands on the table, eyes wide "YOU DIDN'T PLUG IN AN UNKNOWN ENTITY OF ARGUS DESIGN INTO THE PUBLIC ALO SERVERS, DID YOU?!"

Kikuoka smiled weakly and held up his hands in protest. "まあまあ (Mā, mā), Kirito-kun, I wouldn't do something so rash. You are half-correct though. Sit down. Our experts declared that the files were created by the Original Cardinal, and the encryption that was carried out on them was in the core of the program, the part that we couldn't break. We would have no other way of knowing the contents of the files if not to plug it into a Cardinal System. And the only Cardinal System still running today is..."

"Alfheim Online." Kirito finished as realization dawned in his eyes. His facial expression looked grim. "But wouldn't you be endangering the integrity of the game and its players by introducing what could have been anything into the system? Why so reckless?"

"I understand your concern," Kikuoka said, as sun reflected off his glasses, "but we took some precautionary measures. First off, we did this in a separate instance rather than the world of Alfheim. We exactly can't copy the Cardinal to start a whole new world, as we do not have the processing capacity, however, we can create a small, parallel, blank world. It looks like a square, white room, all walls and the floor 1 kilometer in length with a terminal in the middle. Using this, we connected the servers to it safely through a VPN. The script is confined to this instance, and cannot interact with the internet.

Unfortunately, this limits us in two ways. First, we cannot monitor or affect the world in any way from outside, except for some basic logs. Secondly, because of this, we need someone to interact with the script in-world, as it seems that it launched a user interface as it booted."

Kirito grinned. "And you're here to ask me to log into this unknown spawn of Kayaba and figure out what it does?"

"You can bring someone along this time. Someone who knows the game as well as you do"

Kirito immediately thought of Asuna, but quickly did a double take. He didn't want to drag her back into this. Not after everything finally started to fade. It felt like someone wasn't letting him leave, reminding him not to forget.

"So what do I find when I go in?" the dual-wielding swordsman inquired.

Kikuoka looked him in the eye with a grave expression. "I wish I could tell you beforehand. As I said before, our knowledge is limited, and what we do know… It's classified. If you choose to accept, I will tell you when you arrive on site. The rest you will have to figure out by yourself. My bosses are really worried about this. We will pay you again, more this time. Please Kirito-kun. I'm practically on my knees here, begging you."

* * *

Kirito walked out of the Salon de Cafe at 8:42 AM. The blue motorcycle roared to life. His troubled disposition was troubled even more. He didn't know what to think. The forgotten were resurfacing, the past, re-emerging, and he was right smack in the middle of it. Again. He had almost forgotten how to remember, how to remember the one thing he tried so hard to forget.

* * *

Yui liked to Google things, when Kirito and Asuna weren't around. Since she was networked into the core of the Cardinal, she would sit in their little house in the woods and learned the history of the world. The human reality fascinated her. Human history was so rich, their social and political relationships so juicily complex. And it was all right there. The internet and computing, the same power which gave birth to her, was the human's greatest accomplishment. She wanted to understand all of it. If she did, she hoped she could understand her mama and papa better. The world they live in. What they sacrificed when they were trapped in her world. She hoped she could live in both worlds one day, though, she loved all humans, she felt like some would not be so kind to her in return. Greek mythology was taking a toll on her, she thought. The past few hours she was reading about the legends the first civilizations told to explain the fascinating world around them. She sighed. She wished she could Google things faster, but her programming was made in such a way to mimic a human conscience. Part of that was timing, her virtual brain made connections no faster than her organic counterpart, otherwise, creepy things occurred, according to some design logs she fished up.

She smiled. Humans were so forward, yet so naive in the Greek times. They believed in a life after death. That all humans had a substance, a soul, which could live eternally in the Underworld. If only it were true, Yui thought. If humans had a deity storing their souls which could later reincarnate or be revisited, that would end a lot of grief. A lot of her own, albeit virtual, she thought, but nevertheless, greif.

Suddenly, the temperature of the room dropped 20 degrees. The windows seemed to get darker, the sky blackened with heavy, skeet filled storm clouds. Yui felt something sinister, yet something oddly relieving. A presence she had not felt in a long time. Something subconscious, something distant. The Greeks would have said this feeling to be of one cause. In the pits of the Underworld, the Doors of Death have opened.

* * *

Thank you for reading!

Sorry if this chapter yet again feels like exposition. It is. The plot begins to mess with your brains soon enough.

I would like to thank my co-author for pressuring me into continuing again.

Now that school is back, I can hope to be done with the next chapter in 2 weeks.

Please tell me what you think! It warms my heart and helps me become a better writer!

Until then,

-Vertycoxe, 8/25/15


	3. Mexican Eggrolls

_A/N: It took a very, very long time, BUT ITS ALIVE!1!_

 _After things were happening here and there, weeks turned to months...but it's finally ready._

 _I will talk more in the footnote, about the status of this story (and no, I am not abandoning it), and other things._

 _Thank you so much to everyone who reviews and everyone who comes back to check once in a while...I do see and appreciate you both._

 _Without further adue..._

 _You know, Vertycoxe, you don't need to say how you don't own Sword Art Online in every chapter, people already know that...  
Yeah, but it makes me look more professional.  
_

* * *

Mexican Eggrolls

Asuna burst into her room, locked the door, and fell onto the bed out of sheer exhaustion. Rich families were a pain in the ass. Her mother was a pain in the ass, to be precise. Yet another formal kimono meet with her mother's aristocratic friends. She took out her phone and started mindlessly scrolling through the notifications. She remembered how flustered she would get whenever Liz shipped her and Kirito too hard.

She didn't know why. Asuna and Kirito had been together for more than a year now, but for some reason, thoughts like these still sent butterflies through her stomach and a sudden desire to morph into a tiny, adorable guinea pig and hide in the corner of her cage, out of sight. Deep breath. Sigh. She thought she understood her own feelings well, and yet, she still had a hard time controlling them when it wasn't just the two of them. Kirito always had a way to make everything so easy and lighthearted. She missed him already, even though they often went on dates to Agil's bar and spent _more_ than a few hours every day in ALO together. He texted her that he had a meeting to go to today, and couldn't get on in their regular Saturday hours, unfortunately.

She thought that after the whole episode with Yuuki, her mother finally started to understand her. Whether she was just trying to be polite to her aristocratic friends or had changed her mind about her disposition, Asuna, though understanding her motives, still resented her, maybe just a little.

*buzz*

Asuna flinched, as the phone snapped her out of her daydream and back into reality. Courting. Kimonos. Mother. Kirito. Got it.

She looked down onto her phone. Text Message from Kirigaya Kazuto. Asuna opened it.

"-Do you want to go out to lunch? I'll pick you up at 1:00."

She smiled.

"-Sure! Where do you wanna go?"

"-A new place I found. It's called Mexican Food. They put a bunch of vegetables and meat and hot sauce into a big, dry piece of wonton and then wrap it up so it looks like a really big egg roll.

-Chii-potle-u, I think."

Asuna didn't have anything against big egg rolls with spicy mexican food in them.

At 12:57, the sputter and roar of a motorcycle could be heard outside the Yuuki mansion. Asuna grabbed the matching helmet that Kirito had bought for her. His was black, hers was white with red and gold stripes. Kirito objected about the helmet at first, suggesting that she should just use Sugu's cyan one. Asuna liked her new helmet though. The way it slid over her head, it reminded her of NerveGear, and the colors on it reminded her of the swordswoman she once was.

She was about to burst out the door, but as she was putting on her shoes she realized her state of clothing. She had already made the mistake of wearing a skirt whilst riding on a motorcycle before. As she rushed upstairs to change, she cursed herself, because now her mother would have enough time to come downstairs and object to riding motorcycles and, well, just anything Kirito in general.

She flung the doors of her closet open, without bothering to wait for them to open on their own.

Jeans.

As she was leaving she grabbed her backpack which had her AmuSphere. Kirito had asked her to bring it.

Her backpack was very unfitting with the rest of her outfit. Instead of the bag that she slung over her shoulder when she went to school, she had a different one whenever she went out to nature or rode on Kirito's motorcycle. Girls her age usually had cute backpacks with different colors and little charms hanging off the zippers. Asuna's backpack was made out of kevlar, and it was pitch black. It's straps were very comfortable, and transferred the weight of anything that was in it straight down and to her hips. It was covered in MOLLE webbing, and on the velcro meant for a flag, Asuna had a custom sticker. All white, with a red plus sign in the middle. The Knights of the Blood Oath symbol.

As Asuna was bounding down the stairs, she noticed her mother standing at the window. She wasn't saying anything, but her expression was of steely distaste with an edge of thoughtfulness and contemplation.

"Mom, I'm heading out, I'll be back later, ok?" Asuna said upbeatly.

"Don't be late for dinner." Her mother replied, though after a little bit of time and consideration.

Asuna ran out the door. By now, Kirito put his bike up on the kickstand and was looking off into the distance. Even before he turned towards her, Asuna could see something was troubling him.

"Hey, Kirito!" Asuna shouted, with a large smile spreading across her face.

Kirito turned to her and smiled, as if he had forgotten whatever was bothering him.

" Hey, miss second in command! How is your morning been?"

"Nothing special," Asuna replied, "But it would have been better if you actually got on today!" Asuna blurted out, making an annoyed pouty face with a hint of a sinister grin.

Kirito's expression changed slightly. He wasn't reacting to the provocation; his usual response was to take her playfulness too seriously and get defensive. He was cute when he did that. His eyes were sad and weary, his expression was hinting that he was upset.

Guys usually don't realize we notice these kinds of things, Asuna thought, frowning.

"Why couldn't you get on this morning?" Asuna inquired accusingly. "You said you had a meeting? With who?"

Kirito looked out into the distance, his eyes gloomy and dreadful.

"Get on," he said after a brief pause. "I'll tell you when we get there."

Kirito slid his helmet on and swung his leg over his bike. He turned around and helped Asuna buckle her chinstrap. Asuna smiled as she saw Kirito fiddling with her helmet, his gentle hands and simple concern made her heart warm on the chilly winter afternoon.

He flipped the kill switch back to on and pressed the ignition, the old bike sputtered, wheezed, and then roared to life. As they rode out onto the road, Asuna looked over her shoulder. She saw a figure standing behind the curtain, which quickly withdrew from her sight. The ancient blue Yamaha rounded the corner, startling all the birds sitting on the stone fence. They fluttered away in confusion, and Asuna decided to hug Kirito a little bit tighter.

The gated community, the Tokyo suburbs, the busy streets all faded out of focus. The grey from the overcast was cold. It made Asuna want to cry. The endless charade, brought on by her mother and her kimonos. At the end of it all, none of it mattered. Just like back then, as long as she could hold his hand, there was nothing they couldn't overcome. The freezing air that was beating at them as they made their way downtown didn't bother Asuna. For him, being on his bike was the same as wielding the Elucidator or flying through Alfheim. It was his territory, he handled with utmost confidence.

Clutch, rev match, upshift. Clutch, rev match, downshift, throttle. His hands and legs worked as one with the machine. On it he was rock solid. And warm too, Asuna thought. She couldn't see his face, and though she thought he was troubled, he didn't show it, not on his home turf.

Asuna looked around. They were now in the city, but not downtown. Headlights were streaking by, though dim in the gloomy afternoon. She glanced to the side and saw their reflection in a store window. was standing firm, but his shoulders tense. Black and White. Red and Gold. Kirito was wearing his black jacket and Asuna her white and red rimmed one. The helmets hid their faces, but at the same time completed the picture. The strongest team in Aincrad. The Black Swordsman and Lightning Flash. The nostalgia rolled over her in waves as she held on to Kirito tightly.

When she was first trapped in the floating castle, she fought only for herself, to beat the game and remain true. Kirito showed her that her reality was wherever she was at the moment; he taught her that it doesn't matter if a world is virtual or real, because the people in it are very real, and that she should always live it out to the fullest, no matter where she was.

Their reflection disappeared as Kirito turned into a small street. It was lunch hour, the street they went into was crowded with people. Kirito rolled up onto a motorcycle parking spot and choked the engine. Asuna let go of him and stepped off the bike. Before lifting up her visor and pulling of her helmet, she looked at Kirito for a second and then put on her usual cheerful smile.

"All right! Time to get some lunch!"

* * *

Yui didn't have anything close to administrator privileges in Alfheim. She couldn't alter the gameplay too much either, though, her papa said that he talked with some Alfheim developers and they agreed to add her script as an exception, after the Cardinal's anti-cheat system almost sent her and her 'parents' on a little VACation. She still liked to save backups of herself to various outlets, such as Kirito's computer and AmuSphere.

She often wondered about how her emotions affected her and others around her. She envied the humans, who were crafted by millions of years of bloody evolution, not knowing their place in the world, sometimes believing in a higher being who created them. She knew exactly who created her, and didn't exactly wish to bow before him.

Before he started his game, Yui remembered from the logs that Kayaba didn't exactly write her program. It seemed as if he wrote a self learning program which monitored the emotional states of the thousand or so beta testers, and crafted her personality by learning from real human emotions. She studied human psychology a lot in her spare time, and human emotions...though very complex, at the core were a cause and effect system. Her parameters which were meant to emulate a plethora of hormones affected her state of mind the same way a human's did. The memory was stored the same way, she did sleep too. She came to the conclusion that there was no difference between her and any human. If humans knew exactly how they worked on the inside to the extent that Yui understood herself….well, they would doubt if they were truly living beings too. It pained her that she knew. The bliss of human ignorance.

She knew she could feel real emotions, because there was no difference between how the humans felt them and how she felt them. The problem was that Yui simply understood her own existence all too well.

Despite her self-knowledge troubles, she was at the verge of distress. Though the Cardinal did not allow her to alter any part of the world, nothing prevented her from monitoring it as much as she could. She was feeling a terrible premonition. She was scanning everything. She looked at the player login/logout logs. Checked for any updates. Manipulated the anti-cheat system to run a script scan. She couldn't understand what she was feeling, and she couldn't place the source either. Something dark and long forgotten. She sat in the middle of the living room at the 22nd floor cabin. Alone.

* * *

The two burritos lay in on their trays, two large foil wrapped rolls half the length of Asuna's arm. She looked up at her boyfriend, who was awkwardly trying to unwrap his beef and avocado spicy burrito. He was so focused on making a straight line as he ripped the foil, it was almost comical! He usually gets really into it when they fight monsters or raid dungeons. She guessed he wasn't going to let a lowly burrito defeat him! Asuna giggled at that thought.

Kirito looked up puzzled, but with a smile. "What are you laughing about?"

"Oh, nothing…" Asuna replied, playfully twirling a strand of her hair with her fingers, "Just remembering the past."

Kirito looked up at her, with a grin at the corner of his mouth, "Which aspect of the past?"

Asuna glanced down at the burrito. "I was just remembering how we used to fight monsters in the floating castle. About how you were so set on the battle, it almost seemed like you could defeat your opponents with the power of will alone!"

Kirito mischievously grinned and stared into her eyes for a moment, but then averted his gaze and the smile disappeared. "The past, huh," he said with a sigh, "if it weren't for the NerveGear, we may have never crossed paths in reality. Society is restraining isn't it?"

Asuna perked up and her eyes opened wide. "What do you mean?"

Kirito looked at her in the eyes, "Well, if we hadn't logged into the death game, we might have never met each other." He looked at the ceiling, "your first impression of me wasn't too good in the game, and if it were real life, the socio-economic classes separate us too much." Kirito blushed a little.

Asuna reached over the table and cupped his hand into hers. "Well that's because I didn't know you then, dummy."

Kirito's face turned the color of the salsa he was consuming seconds ago.

"Anyway," Kirito said pulling his collar to the side, "If Kayaba accomplished anything, it was level the playing field. I don't want to admit it, but he more or less succeeded in creating his 'world not governed by earthly laws.'" He looked at Asuna with a smile, "That's not always a bad thing, is it?"

Now it was Asuna's turn to blush. Kirito looked at her a little while longer, but then his expression became heavy like when he was picking her up. "What's wrong?" Asuna asked, concern evident in her voice.

His expression turned matter of fact. "Asuna, you brought your AmuSphere, right?"

"Yes, I brought it."

"Would you mind diving from my house with me?" Kirito asked still matter-of-factly, face full of determination.

Asuna blushed a little more, "I don't have a problem with that, but what is this all about?" She inquired.

"You remember how I had to go to a meeting this morning?" Kirito asked.

"Yes, that's why you couldn't get on," Asuna confirmed.

"The person who wanted me to talk was no other than Seijirou-san, Chrysheight." Kirito continued, "He wants me to go in and check something out. It's something to do with SAO. I have a feeling it's important." He hesitated for a second. "I want you to come with me this time though…" his voice trailed off.

Asuna smiled. "Well, I already swore I would follow you to the end of the earth, didn't I?" She laughed, "what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

At the sound of that, Kirito looked happy and relieved, but she could see guilt in behind his smile. It was strange.

Kirito nodded. "Thank you…let's go."

* * *

As the blue motorcycle pulled of the Mexican restaurant, the clouds looked like they were losing the battle to the sun. Rays of light punching through the overcast, but she could still see rain in the distance. Asuna held on to Kirito with a smile, but she felt a strange pain in her chest. She wondered what was to come of this. She was the only one for him, and he was the only one for her, she thought.

"Let's stay together forever, Kirito-kun."

* * *

A/N: Part of the reason it takes me so long to write, is that when I go to upload it I get very self-conscious and pull it down to re-write it...hold me back before I do it again.

This chapter is almost 3K words long, so you're welcome. I actually decided to split what I had in the chapter in half yesterday, partially because I needed to switch POV, partially because I wanted to make it flow better, partially because I wanted to get a chapter out. From the way the other half is turning out, I suspect the next chapter might be even longer still.

School has taken a toll on me, I feel like I can't get anything done, and that's why I had to put this story on the back burner. I really wish i could say otherwise, and I will try otherwise, but it is entirely possible that I won't be able to put the next chapter out until after finals (so like December 20~). I apologize.

Thank you to everyone who has read, followed, reviewed, and even private messaged me. We are almost at a 1000 readers. You guys are awesome.

I would like to thank my co-author again, without you I would have probably given up a long time ago. (everyone will be credited properly after the story is finished)

However, if YOU want to help me out...well you already have. If you read this then I get to go and look at the graph and see the awesome people from around the world are reading my not so awesome fanfic. If you want to go further, there's a very convenient box right below this that says "Review". Review is actually a cipher for "raise the author's spirits and maybe leave some constructive criticism" You can even private message me if you want, I do reply to all of them 3.

Thanks for sticking around, you guys inspire me more than you can imagine,  
-Vertycoxe 11/28/15


	4. Through The Looking Fiber-Optic

The most fascinating thing about computers, Lizbeth thought, is that there is a small universe which exists inside every device, whether it be a quantum supercomputer, or a simple circuit. That universe is something that exists solely because of man. The cumulative knowledge and ambition of great minds over decades has given birth to a world so intricate and complex, yet one that makes so much sense: everything is orderly, everything has a reason for existing. The myriad of layers, from the single transistor to the instructions to the operating system, coherently execute an elegant dance in which nothing is left to chance. That, is the beauty of modern processing, Lizbeth concluded.

After SAO ended, Liz decided that she wanted to learn programming. She sometimes marveled at the fact that a whole world had spawned just because of a single man who could code. A beautiful world. A ruthless world. Sometimes she felt like the small blacksmithing shop was her real home, more than any here, in the real world.

Programming was almost like that world too, she concluded. Nonsensical at times. Perfectly orderly, and ruthlessly unforgiving.

Lizbeth sighed. The debugger opened again. For the past few weeks, she has been trying to decipher Yui's program. She always found it bizarre how a seemingly sentient person was birthed from lines of code. She found it even more perplexing how much Kirito and Asuna cared for something that wasn't really alive. Humans couldn't play god.

The mastermind behind the amazingly complicated, top-down artificial intelligence didn't exactly leave an instruction manual. When Asuna told Liz Yui's story, it became clear that Yui was either an abandoned project or an unfinished prototype.

It was definitely apparent in the code. Unreferenced functions and faulty inputs littered the landscape. Lizbeth began tapping F10 absentmindedly, reminiscing about the world that was gone, while the debugger stepped through yet another one of the mystery functions. It didn't do much. Made a variable, allocated some RAM space.

 _Error: path not found. Attempted to fill keyhole_var3 with unreferenced value. Null._

There it was again, Lizbeth thought. There was some unknown pathway, an absent file, that had to be satisfied for one of these strange functions to execute.

Yui's program is large, well-thought through, and masterfully complex. Which didn't add up. Kayaba was a programming mastermind. There would be no reason for him to leave such an elaborate program in such an unsightly state.

Even the fact that Yui's program was never implemented in her counseling role, as she learned from Asuna, even that didn't account for all of it, either, Lizbeth thought to herself, as she went down the stairs to get something to eat. She put some bread in the toaster and began absentmindedly scrolling through her phone notifications. Something was off. She felt like she was just barely missing it. Something crucial.

The kitchen was dark. The clouds outside reflected off of the granite counter. The gentle hum of the toaster was the only noise that disturbed the silence.

Her phone buzzed.

 _New message: I looked at the script, that specific function it is written to decrypt an AES-256 packet, although the receipt of it is routed through..._

The toaster popped. She set her phone on the counter and started to spread butter on the warm bread.

* * *

The sun was rolling under the horizon. The chilly wind swept through the gray and black pillars of heaven. Only the edge of the sky was not covered by the stormclouds. There was a thin line of sky through which a beautiful, cold, orange sunset was radiating its light without warmth, but it, too, was fading.

The cold brakes squeaked quietly to a halt, and the blue dual sport's engine stopped growling in front of Kirito's house. The passengers disembarked, standing in front of the sunset, taking off their helmets and rubbing their frigid necks.

Kirito wrapped his arm around Asuna's shoulder and they stood marveling at the conflict of nature for a brief moment. Dark cold rainclouds colliding with a radiant sunset combined in a beautiful battle.

The door opened and the couple stepped inside the dark house. The lights, detecting motion, switched on. They walked into the living room and sat on the couch. Asuna undid the sternum strap and put her backpack down next to her. Kirito carefully sat on the edge to her left.

Kirito stared at her with a weak smile. He still couldn't believe how beautiful she was.

He recalled the events of the morning. The government unearthed an old server that used to be part of SAO.

He was almost considering backing out. He turned and faced his girlfriend with a weak smile.

"Did you have your AmuSphere?"

* * *

In one of the busier streets in the downtown area, the tall and deserted monolith stood almost touching the dark clouds, splitting the last of the evening light in two. The doors were off and locked. The dust particles were still in the beams of orange light, not yet settled from the commotion of earlier today. But now, the building stood ominously silent.

It was a lonely place. The dust settled on everything. On the walls and on the floor and on the old desks and abandoned file cabinets. It perforated the air with its still forgottenness.

Down the elevator shaft, there were only a few lights, dim little lights: blinking green and red on transformer boxes and controller panels. The furthest down floor was a concrete slab in a concrete box. If there were any light, one would see the dark rectangles left behind almost as chalk outlines of the old Sword Art Online servers. Any intruder of this dark and silent world, if he were there like earlier that day, would see the silver rectangular plate with the ethernet port, some newly strung cables to it, but that would be the extent of his vision, and the darkness were not to blame.

That is all anyone ever saw. That is all they could ever see.

They would never see the reinforced cable that twisted and turned its way into the ground. From that room, it led its lifeline skillfully around plumbing and electric conduit, through grout and concrete and earth and stone. It was once laid by a small robot, but nobody ever knew about its secret crusade.

It could have lead the cable to the building next door, or it could have lead it to the other side of the Aomori prefecture, nobody would really find out. It could disintegrate at any moment from a strong electric impulse from the terminal on the other side, making it untraceable. He designed it that way for a reason, and he had _not_ forgotten why, unlike he told Kirito that fateful day.

On the other side of this fiber optic highway, stood something that hadn't seen the light of day in its existence. The highway bridged distance so quickly and secretively and seamlessly, it might have just been made with such precision as if intended to bridge worlds.

What worlds? It did not know. The machine that stood on the other side of this bridge in a fortified underground room somewhere where nobody would ever find it, was a server. It resembled its brethren underneath the ex-Argus headquarters in most aspects of form and function. They were towers, four in total, dark and lifeless. Their contents were in deep storage, untouched by man or machine for almost a year now, ever since SAO got shut down. And on that day, after such dormancy, just as the last sliver of daylight slipped into the dark blanket of the clouds, something happened, for which he did not plan for, not this early.

The lights flickered on. The towers hummed to life. The fans began to spin. The wheels of fate began to turn again.

* * *

 _A/N: I pulled a Mark Twain, although he wasn't publishing by chapter like ol' Dickens and I. I feel bad, because I kept trying to cram more into this chapter, but I guess I don't want it to be a full year since I've updated. (read: I basically had most of this written since April, but then-school...,) Thanks for stickin' around if you guys are still here, y'all appreciate my writing more than I do, and I am eternally grateful. Hopefully I can actually stop whacking everyone with exposition by the next chapter, we haven't even gotten to the real rizing action yet :^). Coming to a theater near you, like, soon(TM)_

Yours truly,  
Vertycoxe 11/23/16

P.S. If you guys want to join my discord and talk to me and yell at me to write more often [re-assemble link]: discord .gg / 0x VOv nd HpiE4 A4 Q4


End file.
